SS454
9th May 2021, 20:34
Unfortunately the Spanish GP around the Circuit de Catalunya has become a boring race. Not sure what genius thought reprofiling turn 10 to be a sweeping entry was a good idea as it completely destroyed any chance of overtaking in that area. I am not sure a single pass was even made going into turn 10. Nevertheless there was a battle for the win which probably wasn't as close as we wanted to believe, and the battle for 10th was great, except we barely got to see it unfold.
Mercedes had the faster car by quite some margin. Despite a challenge from Verstappen, Mercedes are now headed in the direction of another dominant season. Great strategy from Mercedes managed to claim a deserving win for Lewis. Bottas as expected had a chance to put his car in there in Turn 1, but chose to back out to ensure he didn't challenge Hamilton and got overtaken by a hungry Charles Leclerc. It was interesting later when given the team orders to not hold up Hamilton on a different strategy, he went ahead and held him up for half a lap. It's looking more and more like this will be the last season at Mercedes for Bottas.
Red Bull who are generally good with strategy and pitstops just dropped the ball a little bit. Who knows if it really made much of a difference as the faster car always has more options over the course of a race. Max did what he could, but 2nd was probably what he deserved. Perez recovered nicely given how hard it is to pass at this track.
Ferrari had a solid day. Their mid field battle against McLaren is very exciting and Ferrari, who brought some decent upgrades, look to be ahead on pace and currently the 3rd best team. Charles Leclerc had a brilliant race. His opening stint keeping Bottas behind was fantastic and earned the 4th place on pace. Sainz played his part by finishing ahead of the second McLaren.
McLaren were again strong in the race. Daniel Ricciardo had a great come back drive as he's been getting beaten by Lando pretty much all season. Today he really stepped up his game with a 5th place finish and seemingly always ahead of Norris.
Alpine was a disappointment as mentioned on the broadcast. Perhaps they put their efforts into qualifying as they knew passing would be difficult. Whatever the reason, their race pace was pretty poor. Ocon was lucky to score points. I would expect a similar performance in Monaco where qualifying is paramount.
AlphaTauri really fought for that point. All season they have qualified well, and then dropped back with not much to show for it in the race. This weekend was the opposite. Dropping as far back as dead last, Gasly was able to claw his way back up to 10th. Deserving of some credit to say the least.
Aston Martin performed exactly as expected. Unlike Mercedes, they can't seem to come to grips with the 2021 low rake car. Lance Stroll tried his best to get a point or two, but I think just ran out of talent. Though enough speed to again finish ahead of his 4 time world champion teammate.
At Alfa Romeo, Kimi Raikkonen was one of the drivers of the race in my eyes. Started on Medium tires, kept it clean and was there fighting with Aston Martin in the end. 12th place is a good result for Kimi. A very strange situation happened on Giovinazzi's pitstop. Apparently a tire valve issue meant the one tire had deflated and it cost him over 30 seconds, fortunately it was during a safety car period.
Williams had a very up and down race. They could barely keep up with Haas at the beginning of the race, they were chewing through tires, then next thing you know they are less than 0.5 seconds off of a points position. A few laps later and they have dropped back down to 15th or so. The car seems to be very sensitive to wind and traffic.
Haas always at the back, but let's give a hand to Schumacher for his opening laps performance. The kid was a stud in F2 in terms of gaining positions on lap 1 and today made some moves in the big boy league. He fought with a slow car as long as he could, but unfortunately the Haas can only do so much and he finished where he should, second to last, ahead of his teammate.
Driver of the Day: Charles Leclerc. Sure some may say it is Lewis or Max, but I think Leclerc far exceeded what was expected. It wasn't dodgy defending that kept him in 4th, it was his outright speed.
Mercedes had the faster car by quite some margin. Despite a challenge from Verstappen, Mercedes are now headed in the direction of another dominant season. Great strategy from Mercedes managed to claim a deserving win for Lewis. Bottas as expected had a chance to put his car in there in Turn 1, but chose to back out to ensure he didn't challenge Hamilton and got overtaken by a hungry Charles Leclerc. It was interesting later when given the team orders to not hold up Hamilton on a different strategy, he went ahead and held him up for half a lap. It's looking more and more like this will be the last season at Mercedes for Bottas.
Red Bull who are generally good with strategy and pitstops just dropped the ball a little bit. Who knows if it really made much of a difference as the faster car always has more options over the course of a race. Max did what he could, but 2nd was probably what he deserved. Perez recovered nicely given how hard it is to pass at this track.
Ferrari had a solid day. Their mid field battle against McLaren is very exciting and Ferrari, who brought some decent upgrades, look to be ahead on pace and currently the 3rd best team. Charles Leclerc had a brilliant race. His opening stint keeping Bottas behind was fantastic and earned the 4th place on pace. Sainz played his part by finishing ahead of the second McLaren.
McLaren were again strong in the race. Daniel Ricciardo had a great come back drive as he's been getting beaten by Lando pretty much all season. Today he really stepped up his game with a 5th place finish and seemingly always ahead of Norris.
Alpine was a disappointment as mentioned on the broadcast. Perhaps they put their efforts into qualifying as they knew passing would be difficult. Whatever the reason, their race pace was pretty poor. Ocon was lucky to score points. I would expect a similar performance in Monaco where qualifying is paramount.
AlphaTauri really fought for that point. All season they have qualified well, and then dropped back with not much to show for it in the race. This weekend was the opposite. Dropping as far back as dead last, Gasly was able to claw his way back up to 10th. Deserving of some credit to say the least.
Aston Martin performed exactly as expected. Unlike Mercedes, they can't seem to come to grips with the 2021 low rake car. Lance Stroll tried his best to get a point or two, but I think just ran out of talent. Though enough speed to again finish ahead of his 4 time world champion teammate.
At Alfa Romeo, Kimi Raikkonen was one of the drivers of the race in my eyes. Started on Medium tires, kept it clean and was there fighting with Aston Martin in the end. 12th place is a good result for Kimi. A very strange situation happened on Giovinazzi's pitstop. Apparently a tire valve issue meant the one tire had deflated and it cost him over 30 seconds, fortunately it was during a safety car period.
Williams had a very up and down race. They could barely keep up with Haas at the beginning of the race, they were chewing through tires, then next thing you know they are less than 0.5 seconds off of a points position. A few laps later and they have dropped back down to 15th or so. The car seems to be very sensitive to wind and traffic.
Haas always at the back, but let's give a hand to Schumacher for his opening laps performance. The kid was a stud in F2 in terms of gaining positions on lap 1 and today made some moves in the big boy league. He fought with a slow car as long as he could, but unfortunately the Haas can only do so much and he finished where he should, second to last, ahead of his teammate.
Driver of the Day: Charles Leclerc. Sure some may say it is Lewis or Max, but I think Leclerc far exceeded what was expected. It wasn't dodgy defending that kept him in 4th, it was his outright speed.